United Nations Daily Highlights, 99-09-02

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From: The United Nations Home Page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

DAILY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 2 September, 1999

HEADLINES

• Two local UN workers killed as East Timor violence spreads.
• Security Council members welcome rebel group's signing of ceasefire for Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Secretary-General "deeply relieved" at release of Australian aid workers held by Yugoslav Government.
• Security Council sanctions committee allows Iraq's $10 million oil donation to earthquake victims in Turkey.
• International community believes time has come to do more for Somalia, says UN envoy.
• UNICEF in push to repair more than half of Kosovo's schools.
• Multi-agency UN humanitarian mission on fact-finding trip to Kyrgyzstan following outbreak of fighting.

The killings follow the murder on Monday in Atsabe of an East Timorese UN worker, who was stabbed to death outside a polling station.

Speaking at a press conference in Dili, Ian Martin, the Secretary- General's Special Representative, called on the leaders of the pro- independence and pro-integration sides to fulfil their earlier commitments to keep their members from moving around with weapons. He also said the Indonesian police chief had committed his forces to arresting anyone found doing so, but yesterday's violence made it apparent that such action had not been taken.

"It is clear that only by preventing armed groups from continuing to move around and terrorize others in Dili and elsewhere in East Timor that security can be restored," Mr. Martin stressed.

Mr. Martin added that he was particularly concerned about the safety of the UN's local staff. "The Indonesian authorities must recognize that the security of UN personnel extends to our local staff as much as it does to our international staff," he said.

Meanwhile, the UN Mission started counting ballots as the independent electoral commission began its two-day hearing into complaints received from the United Front for East Timor Autonomy concerning alleged irregularities in the popular consultation.

In a press statement, Council President Ambassador Peter van Walsum of the Netherlands said the members urged all sides to abide strictly by the Lusaka Agreement and to refrain from any action putting it at risk "so that peace can become a reality."

The members also welcomed the imminent deployment of the first group of United Nations military liaison officers to help implement the accord, Ambassador van Walsum said, and reiterated their continuing support for the UN's involvement in the peace process.

The Secretary-General welcomed the release yesterday of CARE (Australia) workers Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace on humanitarian grounds, Spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

"It is also his hope that the remaining CARE worker still in custody, Branko Jelen, will also be released soon," Mr. Eckhard said.

Council members did not object to Iraq's plan to provide 500,000 barrels of oil to Turkey, according to a spokesman for the chairman of the committee.

The donation will not count against Iraq's export limit as governed by the United Nations oil-for-food programme, which allows the Government to use the revenues from oil sales to purchase humanitarian supplies.

In a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, David Stephen, the Secretary-General's Representative for Somalia and Director of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), said last month's report by the Secretary-General on Somalia -- the first in two years -- had begun to correct the feeling inside Somalia that the country had been "forgotten by the international community."

Since the disbandment of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM II) in March 1995, the international community had moved the emphasis in the search for peace to regional organizations, Mr. Stephen said.

The UN's role had been to support and assist the regional actors while also bringing in countries from outside the region with an interest, including Egypt and Yemen, which traditionally have had very close relations with Somalia, Mr. Stephen said. In addition to that regional structure, there was a mechanism of ambassadorial meetings held in New York every three or four months.

Mr. Stephen pointed to two upcoming meetings where there would be opportunity for the international community to discuss further ways to assist Somalia. The Standing Committee on Somalia, a body grouping the region and other countries, would meet in Addis Ababa on 29 September while the IGAD Partners Forum, a donor group chaired by Italy and Norway, would meet in Rome in early October.

UNICEF said it estimated that at the end of the Balkans conflict, nearly 668 of Kosovo's 1,000 schools were in need of repair, with 45 per cent severely damaged or destroyed. The majority of school facilities have been looted while some still have to be checked for landmines and unexploded ordnance.

To ensure that all facilities will be fully functional when some 310,000 students return in the autumn, UNICEF and dozens of partner organizations have already repaired 34 schools and are working to restore 263 others. Seven hundred winterized tents will be used as temporary classrooms where facilities will not be repaired in time.

About 250,000 school children began "catch up" classes this week to complete coursework interrupted last spring. Some classes are being convened in repaired or nearly repaired schools; others are simply being held outdoors.

UNICEF is also pushing to revamp the old Kosovo school system which often physically separated Albanian and Serb children. To accommodate the language differences among students, schools will operate on a time- share basis, with Albanian-language instruction for half the day and Serbian instruction during the other.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the mission will consist of representatives of agencies based in the capital Bishkek. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are among the agencies participating.

Kyrgyz authorities requested international assistance for the victims of the fighting, which reportedly began when up to 1,000 gunmen from neighbouring Tajikistan crossed into the Batkan district of Kyrgyzstan late last month.

From the United Nations home page at <http://www.un.org> - email: unnews@un.org

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